


Crossfire Hurricane

by vain_glorious



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Gen, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-09 22:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13490976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vain_glorious/pseuds/vain_glorious
Summary: Micro and the Punisher meet Black Widow."Frank barely knows who the Avengers are. But, he has a lot of opinions, anyway. Most of them are about David checking on the lady that shot him, first, before coming back to take care of Frank. Also, he doesn’t care who this woman is. She shot him in the ass."





	Crossfire Hurricane

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the first half of Season 1 of the Punisher
> 
> title: http://www.tracygrammer.com/when-i-go.html

She looks like Sarah. That’s the only reason David falls for it. The woman who walks up to his basement lair looks like his wife. She has long, dark blonde hair like Sarah, but she’s a little shorter, and he wouldn’t want his wife wandering around in this neighborhood at night.

His wife would have a phone and call for help, though. He hopes she wouldn’t knock on the door of the creepy old abandoned building, like this lady does.

David shouldn’t answer. He knows that. He doesn’t need Frank to tell him that. Frank had a rough day and already passed out on his cot, though. Frank isn’t awake to boss him around. So David looks at his cameras for a few more seconds and then rises, on his way to answer her increasingly frantic knocking.

“Hey,” Frank’s deep voice, crusty from sleep, halts him a few steps from the entrance. “Who’s that?”

David turns around, points at the image on all the cameras. “It’s a woman. She’s been walking around the property for half an hour. I think she got car trouble -?” His voice rises curiously at the end and it sounds dumb and apologetic even to his ears.

“Don’t,” Frank says, but David’s hand is already on the door handle and pulling it open.

“Hey,” he says, while Frank curses at him.

“Hey,” she says, smiling gratefully. “I need some help.”

Her name is _also_ Sarah, which is too much of a coincidence. And she did have car trouble, like he thought. She has a flat, and her phone’s dead.

“Can you help me change it?” she asks, hopefully. “Or can I come in and use the phone?”

She definitely can’t come in what has become their secret base of operations. And despite what Frank has implied about David being a useless keyboard warrior, he can change a tire.

“You got a donut?” he checks, and she nods. “Lemme get my jacket,” he says. Out of her sight, over his shoulder, Frank calls him an idiot.

“I’ll do it,” Frank says. More softly, “Remember how you’re dead?”

“My friend’s gonna help,” David tells her, so she’s not frightened when the burly jerk follows him out. “Wait a sec.”

“I don’t want his help, I want yours,” Sarah says, and the timbre of her voice has changed from helpless and pleading to something low and commanding. “He’s not your friend. David, I need you to come with me.”

He hadn’t said his name. He only pauses for a second before trying to slam the door. Even though she’s slender and petite, she somehow manages to stick her leg in the crack and he can’t close it.

“Frank!” David yells, baffled by how such a small woman can block the door open. But she is, and then she’s grabbed hold of his upper arm and is trying to drag him outside. “Frank!”

What happens after that is less clear. He feels Frank’s giant hand grab his other arm and try to pull him away. But she doesn’t let go and there are a few seconds of terribly painful tug of war.

Then somebody fires a gun. It’s so loud and close, the crack is deafening.  David grabs his head, then checks his chest and shoulders for a wound.

Frank lets go of him and shoves the door shut. Somehow, the woman’s inside.

She’s the one with gun, firing again at Frank, who dives for cover behind David’s computers.

“Wait – Hey!” David tries, as she bodily hauls him back towards the exit.

Frank comes back up, armed. David can’t get out of the way because the intruder has grabbed him again, her grip unbreakable.

Everyone’s yelling. David thinks he’s shouting no, but no one listens to him.

Frank shoots at him. He’s probably shooting at her, but it sure feels like he’s shooting at David.

David yells “No!” again, as bullets explode around him. It’s so loud and terrifying he sincerely doesn’t know if he’s been shot.

His captor drags him across the room, throwing them both behind a desk. He belatedly realizes she’s trying to shield him from Frank, who she’s now shooting back at.

Electronics explode into sparks and broken glass as more bullets pierce his computers and screens.

“Wait,” he tries, again.

“Shh,” she says, and shoots some more at Frank. “I’ll get you out of here.”

He blinks at her, finally tracking. “Okay,” he says, as one hand creeps towards the overturned pencil drawer.

David sticks her in the upper arm with the syringe, and then bats down the gun she tries to bring to bear on him.

The drugs work quickly. Despite her strength, she’s tiny and female.

“You’re not a hostage,” she says, as the chemical takes effect and she collapses sideways.

“No,” he says.

In the next second, Frank comes out in the open and stands over them. His gun is aimed straight at her.

“No!” David yells at him, throwing himself over her body.

Frank grunts in confusion. He takes one step forward, then grabs his left side. He gasps once, then his left leg gives out and he hits the floor, too.

~

David treats “Sarah” first. He checks her for bullet wounds, sure that Frank has shot her. He can literally see holes in her shirt. But underneath he finds strange, tight undergarments that aren’t pierced. And he’s confused ‘til he finds a manufacturing tag.

Then he goes and treats Frank, who doesn’t wear Stark Tech body armor.

But first he goes back and cuffs the woman’s arms to the nearest overturned chair, in case she wakes up.  She conveniently brought handcuffs.

Frank got shot in the ass. It looks like a graze, and it runs from his side down his flank, bleeding profusely. He also got shot so many times in his vest, he’s going to look like a plum underneath. David does what he can and gets the bleeding on his leg under control, then goes back to the woman.

She has cuts on her face and neck, where there wasn’t body armor. He already has an idea what’s happening, and when her wig comes off in his hands, he finally understands.

“Oh no,” he says. He rockets back to Frank, whose mumbling and moaning on the floor.

“Frank, Frank, Frank,” he says.

“Lemme shoot her,” Frank says, not even fully awake.

“No,” he says, making sure all the guns are out of reach.

Frank tries to sit up and groans, discovering how much he hurts. “What the fuck?” he asks

“You just tried to kill Black Widow,” David says.

“Uh?”

“You know, the Avengers.”

~

Frank barely knows who the Avengers are. But, he has a lot of opinions, anyway. Most of them are about David checking on the lady that shot him, first, before coming back to take care of Frank. Also, he doesn’t care who this woman is. She shot him in the ass.

David distracts him from trying to go do anything stupid by solicitously attending to his wounds. Well, not so solicitously, but still.

“How the fuck do you even know who she is?” Frank gets more and more vulgar, the more David touches his injuries.

“Leo watches her videos on Youtube all the time,” David tells him.

Frank snorts and then gets very quiet and grunty as David introduces disinfectant to the situation.

“What the fuck she doing here,” he mutters, trying to peer over David’s shoulder.

“Do I know?” David retorts.

Frank curses some more, as David starts stitching.

He’s not in any condition to stand up, after, but he’s not bleeding to death. David lets Frank keep an eye on her still form, from across the room.

“I get her?” Franks asks, when she still doesn’t wake up.

“She’s got Stark Tech body armor,” David tells him.

Frank frowns, like that’s cheating.

“She’s smaller than you and female,” he says. “That drug’s gonna keep her down a long time.”

“You got a goddamn stash of those things?” Frank accuses.

“Next time I’ll let her shoot you,” David replies. “Okay?”

But, David’s not letting anyone shoot anyone else. He tries to play peacemaker but putting some careful butterfly bandages across Natasha’s scrapes. Frank doesn’t mind monster-like scars. Others prefer plastic surgeons.

He also diffuses the situation by carefully removing all of Natasha’s weapons before she wakes up. She has a lot.

Frank watches from across the room.

“This is getting pervy,” he remarks, as David has to dip under layers of clothing to find all her guns and knives.

“Only if you have a gun-kink,” David tells him, which Frank probably does.

Suddenly, when he looks down, Natasha’s eyes are open. David’s so startled, he scrambles backwards and almost tasers himself with the last weapon he’s holding.

Frank snorts at him. “Stay back,” he warns, already alert.

“Stay there!” David orders him.

“Hey,” he says to Natasha. “Hey.” He waves her taser apologetically. “I was just getting this.”

She blinks green eyes at him, fuzzy but tracking.

“That’s mine,” she says.

“You can totally have it back,” he says. “Later.”

She should still be unconscious. Maybe she’s augmented like some of the others. But, she still looks pretty out of it.

“So, not a hostage,” she says, exhaling.

“No,” he says. “I’m David.”

She looks past him at Frank.

“That’s Frank,” he says. “He lives here, too.”

“Hi,” Frank says, putting an impressive amount of menace in the word.

David glares at him.

“He’s nice,” he says, then corrects himself. “Asshole. Huge asshole.” Frank glares back. “But, uh, I’m here voluntarily.”

“I think he might be holding me hostage, now,” Frank says.

She’s maybe a little too drugged to follow that.

Slowly, David creeps closer towards her.

“Idiot,” Frank says.

“My intel was wrong,” Natasha says, after a beat.

“Just old,” David says.

“You’re an idiot and a kiss-ass,” Frank says. “Back up.”

“She’s not gonna hurt me,” David says, hopefully.

Also, she’s drugged out of her mind and chained to a chair. He should be able to get away and hide behind Frank if she tries.

“I didn’t think the Punisher would be such a scaredy-cat, Frank,” Natasha says, voice suddenly clearing and sharpening.

Frank shifts dangerously in his seat.

“Knock it off,” David orders. “Or I’ll stick you again.”

“Are you talking to me or to him,” Natasha wonders, casting a glance around.

“Both of you.”

Probably her, though. He’s much less afraid of Frank and if she’s not awake to keep provoking him, he won’t have to stick Frank.

“They said the Punisher was going to kill you,” she says, almost apologetically. “I guess they wanted me to kill him.” She shrugs, awkwardly. “My bad.”

“Yeah,’ Frank says, unforgivingly.

“Who’s they?” David asks.  He doesn’t think they should have gotten on the radar of anyone capable of sending Black Widow after them.

Natasha shrugs, again. Her handcuffs clink with the movement.

“The gig economy,” she says, sounding tired again, but not from the drugs.

A terrible, sudden thought strikes David. She’s been awake and lucid for a while now.

“Did you call for back up?” he asks, suddenly.

“What?” Natasha asks, confused.

“Back up,” he says, urgently. “Is somebody coming?”

Frank figures out what he’s suggesting, and tries to stagger to his feet. It doesn’t work, and he falls back down.

All their security cameras have been shot to shit. David wouldn’t see anyone coming. And not even Frank can do much against the Avengers.

Natasha is offended. “You think I need back up?” she asks. “Against _you_?”

“Him, mostly,” David admits. He doesn’t think he can stick Iron Man with a needle through the metal suit.

She laughs, almost bitterly. “No,” she says, finally. “No back up.”

He sighs in relief. “Okay,” he says. David glances back at Frank, not sure what to do. Frank mostly still thinks he should get to shoot her, from the expression on his face. “Uh, what happens now?”

Natasha sits up. Even though she shouldn’t be able to do that without faceplanting, yet. And she was cuffed to a chair. He looks down; the cuffs are still attached to the chair.

He scoots backward, unsure if he should raise his hands in surrender or try to stick her again. Two doses that quickly would kill a normal person.

“She’s loose,” he says, like Frank can’t tell.

“I see that.” Frank sounds like he’s considering some options given he can’t even stand. David moved all his guns out of reach, too.

“No more needles,” Natasha orders him.

“Yeah, okay.” He goes with raising his hands in surrender.

“I’m taking my weapons back,” she announces, and goes about doing just that.

She picks up the body armor David stripped off her, and sighs. “This is ruined,” she says, and looks accusingly at Frank.

“Yeah, mine too,” he says. “How many ribs you break?”

She tosses the body armor in his general direction. “Still some good patches,” she offers.

That’s a surprisingly positive sign. David cautiously puts his hands down.

“Say thanks, Frank,” he suggests.

Frank does not say thanks. But he seems to understand that they don’t have to fight anymore.

“You shot up my rig,” David reminds her. There’s broken, bullet-ridden computers and screens all around them.

“Yeah, I can replace that,” Natasha says, casually. “You take delivery at your secret hide-out, or?”

“No,” he says.

“We can work out a drop site,” she says, like she genuinely intends to come through on that. “Stark’s a voyeuristic freak, too.”

“Thanks,” David says. “To the first part.”

Natasha has tucked all her guns away and rearranged her disarrayed, dirty clothing. Minus the bandages visible on her face and neck, she looks almost normal.

“You want your wig back?” David asks. There’s bullet holes and at least two people’s blood on it.  

She shakes her head. “How’d you know who I was?”

“Black Widow is my daughter’s favorite Avenger,” he tells her, honestly.

For a moment, she smiles at him.

“Not mine,” Frank announces, as if they’d forgotten about him. “Not mine.”

“I’m gonna go,” Natasha tells him. “Still not a hostage?” She tilts her head at Frank.

“No,” he says. “Kinda in it together. Got some stuff to avenge.”

“Got it,” she says. “Sorry for…” She waves a hand towards the total destruction surrounding them.

“You could have used your words,” David agrees.

“I tried,” Natasha says, tipping her head towards Frank.

“You shot first?” David demands.

Frank actually kind of grins. “Yeah,” he says.               

David stares at him for only a second, but when he turns his head back, Natasha is gone and the door clicks shut behind her.

**

They end up having to get Curtis to take a second look at Frank. David’s doctoring is insufficient for the hurting the gun battle put on him. Frank’s usually totally honest with Curtis, but neither of them elect to share that he tried to shoot Black Widow.

When they get back to the bunker with a bunch of pain killers and anti-biotics, the damage is gone. There are new computers, new screens. Everything looks like it did before, if not better.  David can see his family surveillance, immediately.

“She came through,” he tells Frank, helping him to a cot.

“She shot me.” Frank holds a grudge.  “She can go to hell.”

“She’d be kind of useful to have around,” David says.

“I knew it,” Frank says. “You all but invited her to join the clubhouse, right after she trashed it and tried to kidnap you.”

“That was half you,” David points out. “And this isn’t a clubhouse.”

Frank staggers toward his bed, abandoning the argument.

“You make friends in dumb ways,” he says, lying down.

 

~Please Feed the Author~

**Author's Note:**

> title: http://www.tracygrammer.com/when-i-go.html


End file.
